BRIAN PALLISTER'S PUSH FOR FREEDOM
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Summary
Canadians should be able to drive across provincial borders without fear of a hefty fine for carrying a six-pack of beer across the border, says Brian Pallister, Premier of Manitoba, in a letter to his fellow premiers.
Transcript
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Canada's premiers are set to meet next week, something they do routinely
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throughout the year, and one of the members of this esteemed club of first
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ministers in Canada is already standing out with a great idea. Brian Pallister,
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Premier of Manitoba, has written a letter to his colleagues that says they
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need to work together to eliminate interprovincial trade barriers when it
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comes to alcohol specifically. This was a case that the Supreme Court ultimately
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ruled on not too long ago where they found that a $240 fine that was issued
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by the New Brunswick government to a man who brought a six-pack of beer over from
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Quebec was in fact justified. $240. It wasn't about the money though. It was
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about the principle. Our Constitution, our Charter, everything about the fabric of
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our identity in Canada says that we can move freely across provincial
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boundaries. You should be able to do it with or without a six-pack of beer, but
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Mr. Comeau found that was not the case. And the Supreme Court ruled on this.
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Everyone thought it was going to be a slam dunk in the way of freedom, but the
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Supreme Court actually ruled that our mobility rights can be trumped if
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provinces have a greater purpose. And for the province of New Brunswick, that
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greater purpose was legitimately control over alcohol sales, market share. So now
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Brian Pallister is leading the charge saying that provinces need to make sure they
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are not actively going after their own citizens for daring to drive from one
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province into another. And there are going to be some people that say, oh well, is
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alcohol really the hill you want to die on? There is no monopoly on a good idea
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first off. And most importantly, we can't eliminate the smaller problems from our
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agenda because there are too many of the bigger problems. We need to look after the
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big and the small, which is why I hope that Minister or Premier Pallister's idea
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will actually be embraced. You cannot pretend to have a free country on the big
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issues if you spend so much time becoming the nanny state on the little
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issues. And one six pack at a time, we're going to tell Canadians that there's a
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better way. For True North Initiative, I'm Andrew Lawton.